Tides contain significant amount of energy. As a tide comes into shore, the water level rises. Conversely, the water level falls as the tide goes out. This rising and falling of the water level can be harnessed to produce electrical power.
We are the inventors of several earlier patents, namely U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,075,190 and 7,199,483, which discuss the use of vessel hulls to extract energy from the tides and other bodies of water. The vessel hull is used with pistons and cylinders; as the vessel hull moves up and down, the pistons and cylinders produce pressurized fluid, which fluid is then used to drive a turbine. The turbine in turn drives an electrical generator.
This invention uses the vertical motion of a vessel hull or other mass to directly drive an electrical generator.
In addition, this invention creates vertical motion without tidal action by changing the buoyancy of the mass.